


orange, the official color of Halloween and losers club reunions

by girlsarewolves



Series: exchanges [17]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Came back the same and is really glad to be back, Character(s) survive and retire and live happily ever after, Characters Have Sleepover That Results In Giant Cuddle Pile, Everybody Lives, F/M, Families of Choice, Fix-It, M/M, Multi, Polyamorous Losers Club (IT), The Losers Club (IT) Love Each Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 00:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20898743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsarewolves/pseuds/girlsarewolves
Summary: How the five of them made it back to the hotel wasn’t really clear. Neither was how they ended up in a tangled pile strewn across the floor - none of them even knew whose room they were actually in. (Hopefully somebody had remembered to leave the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.) The biggest question - questions? - of all though? How the hell did Stan and Eddie wind up there with them, when the hell did Stan and Eddie wind up there with them, and how the hell were they alive?





	orange, the official color of Halloween and losers club reunions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hearthouses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearthouses/gifts).

* * *

How the five of them made it back to the hotel wasn’t really clear. Neither was how they ended up in a tangled pile strewn across the floor - none of them even knew whose room they were actually in. (Hopefully somebody had remembered to leave the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.) The biggest question - questions? - of all though? How the hell did Stan and Eddie wind up there with them, _when_ the hell did Stan and Eddie wind up there with them, and _how the hell were they alive_?

It was Richie who woke up first to find two extra bodies amongst the pile of dirty, stinky, exhausted losers. The rest of the group were startled back into consciousness seconds later by his loud and continuing shouts of confusion mixed in with various uses of the words ‘fuck’ and ‘fucking’. 

Even Eddie had jerked awake in an attack stance, fists up and ready to fight before he paused, staring at his hands and realizing that something was off. One fist opened and moved to his chest where a gaping wound should be, but there was nothing. Not on his shirt, not on his body.

Stan, meanwhile, was just crumpled on the ground, eyes wide and panicked while his hands kept feeling at his wrists like there should be long, thin lines leaking blood everywhere.

The baffled silence from everyone spoke volumes. They all stood there, frozen, gawking at each other as their brains groggily and confusedly tried to make sense of things. The five survivors and the two who weren’t supposed to be there - well, they were, but fate sucked and stopped them, except now they were there. And nobody knew what the hell was going on.

Of course it was Richie who spoke first.

“...three questions. What?  _ The _ ?  ** _Fuck_ ** ?”

* * *

At first the losers tied both men to the hotel room chairs while they questioned them to try and determine if they were real or some trick of a not-so-dead-after-all Pennywise. But the fact that Pennywise knew them all so well made them particularly suspicious of even the most incredibly accurate and personal answers.

“Are you freaking kidding me, I need to go to a hospital! We both do! We have no idea how we’re alive! What if there’s internal bleeding? Or infection? Scarring on the organs, who knows!” Eddie snapped after about twenty minutes of twenty questions turning into forty and then into eighty more.

“Okay, it’s them. No way even Pennywise would willingly want to go to the hospital,” Richie stated. Before promptly fainting. (He would later argue and say he did not faint. He passed out. There’s a difference.) While Ben caught him by the sheer chance of standing next to him, the others concurred that it had to be the real Stan and Eddie cut and finally cut them free.

That was when the emotions they had been suppressing throughout their interrogation finally rushed to the surface. They all started crying - first Mike and Beverly, but within seconds it was all seven of them - and hugging and ignoring Eddie’s insistence through his tears that they all go to the hospital, ew, why do you all smell like dead clown and body odor, did any of you actually get a shower after that?

“Oh, shut up, and let us hug you,” Bev whispered, clinging to Eddie and kissing him on the cheek. “We thought we were never going to see you again. Showers can wait.”

A now conscious Richie nodded and pointed at her before separating the two of them. “What she said.” His words came out choked and slurred, though, he was crying so hard. Then he grabbed Eddie, clutching him in his arms like he was afraid to let go, that if he did, Eddie might disappear and leave him all over again.

“Richie...Rich...I can’t...I can’t breathe…”

Stan laughed as he held onto Bill, rolling his eyes as he watched those two from over Bill’s shoulder. Some things never changed. He closed his eyes then and just breathed in deep, fighting off his own tearful breakdown that threatened to come rising back up. “I guess my gambit paid off,” he whispered into Bill’s hair. He could agree with Eddie that the others really did reek. But he didn’t care. It was the best thing he’d ever smelled in his life.

“Gambit?” Bill asked, confused, pulling back enough to look Stan in the eyes. “What gambit?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Stan smiled and then turned into Mike, hugging him too. He felt more arms coming around, looked over to see everyone had moved to circle around him, one giant hug of losers with him at the center. 

They stayed like that for a long time, until Beverly finally whispered with tearful eyes, “We all really do smell.”

* * *

While they talked Eddie out of going to the hospital, they did all agree that yes, a proper shower was in order. There was discussion over who got to go first - “Beverly should go first,” Ben had said rather firmly, and Richie had snorted, “Yeah and hog all the hot water,” and then there was some arguing before they decided they would go in groups. Sure, there were other bathrooms in the building but...then they’d have to be separated. They weren’t ready for that yet.

So the lot of them kind of just shuffled in and out of the bathroom, going in two or three at a time, not caring that they were all naked around each other, not even Beverly. They did let her be part of the first group, which ended up being her, Ben, and Mike. Eddie and Richie were next, followed by Stan and Bill. It was a tight fit, but nobody really minded. Everyone helped each other scrub off the grime and sweat and blood still left behind after their swim at the quarry.

The water running past their feet to the drain was filthy.

“Hey, remember when we all stared at Bev in her undies at the rock quarry, like a bunch of pervs?” Richie piped up when they were drying off, everyone finally done with the shower. (Good thing there was no one else there, because the hot water was definitely a thing of the past.) Richie tried to laugh at his lame attempt at a joke - but the sound came out more like the promise of another tearful breakdown, and he clutched Eddie’s hand tightly.

Beverly snorted. “I do.”

The men had the decency to blush, except for Richie who just shrugged, took a deep breath, and then, “Yeah, well. I, uh, had a straight facade to maintain.” He closed his eyes after he said it, like he was bracing himself for the worst.

Stan laid a hand on his shoulder. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, you sucked at it.”

Richie blinked his eyes open.

The other men all glanced at each other, a little more oblivious to the obvious, but then they just shrugged and nodded. “It doesn’t change anything for us,” Bill was the one to speak up next and reached over to mess with Richie’s hair. “Now we understand why you don’t write your own material though.”

Everyone laughed then, and Beverly nodded. “It explains a lot to be honest.”

Richie gave her a studying look. “You knew though, didn’t you?”

Beverly’s eyes flickered to Eddie - briefly, but everybody caught it. “I suspected. But it wasn’t my place or any of my business unless you wanted it to be.” She went over, giving him a side hug. “But we’re very glad you feel able to share that with us.” 

The others nodded. 

Somehow they all wound up in another cuddle pile, this one while mostly or completely naked. Nobody really cared. 

Eddie was just glad they were finally clean. And to be alive. Mostly that. 

* * *

They went their separate ways after a few days, but they kept in touch through a group chat. Always checking in, making sure everyone remembers. Making sure everyone is alive. They texted plenty, but always made time for live video chats. They needed to see and hear each other, even if they couldn’t always be together. 

Touching.

Eddie and Bill often discussed the progress of their respective divorces and how differently their soon to be ex-wives handle it. 

(Bill’s went down a thousand times better than Eddie’s, since his wife wasn’t an emotionally abusive control freak who lost her marbles over her soon to be ex-husband realizing he wasn’t completely straight and also didn’t want to be married to her anymore. In fact Bill was pretty sure Audra rushed the proceedings along so he and Mike were free to marry whenever they wanted. And maybe also because she realized she didn’t want to be married to him anymore, either. They kept in touch, though.)

Ben and Beverly got engaged via video chat, Ben’s dog barking loudly in the background and jumping on both of them to lick excitedly. Beverly was glowing, thriving on remembering who she was and what she had endured and finally having some healthy relationships in her life. Ben still looked like a lovesick puppy, but a very excited and content lovesick puppy.

Richie proceeded to propose to Eddie’s late mother, of course. His and Eddie’s video dropped out of the call seconds later.

Everyone checked in with Stan the most. Everyone received his letter, found out what his gambit had been, found out why he’d made that choice. They had, of course, reacted with many “you didn’t have to do that” and “damn it, Stan” and “dammit, Stan the man, you are so lucky I can’t reach through this iPad and throttle you, you shithead, you better be glad you came back otherwise I would find a way to wherever you went in the afterlife and thrash you for making such a reckless decision, you asshole, I love you, man.”

His wife joined in on the video chats sometimes. His temporary suicide is never brought up when Patty is around, but everyone loves her. It’s heavily suspected Beverly might be her biggest fan, though - and they don’t think it’s just because it keeps her from being the token female member of the losers club, despite what Richie teases.

Bill went to Florida with Mike. He finally wrote an ending that everyone loved. It ended with several childhood friends surviving and moving in together. There were plenty of critics who didn’t like how ‘unrealistic’ that ending was, but the losers loved it.

“We should do that,” Richie blurted out one day, giving voice to what they were all thinking - that they wanted that ending. “Always be together in one big house. Why not? We gotta take back all those years that motherfucking clown stole from us.” 

In the end, they talked it over and settled on going all in for a joint beach house. 

* * *

“Happy Halloween, Losers!” Richie shouted once everyone was there.

Ben and Bev were the last to arrive, along with their dog who was now very happily roaming from person to person to get pets and ear scratches and give kisses to anyone who wasn’t Eddie “Do you know how filthy dogs’ mouths are?” Kaspbrak-Tozier. 

Richie smothered the two latecomers in more hugs and kisses than their dog was currently trying to serve to Mr. “No, your tongue is not coming anywhere near my face!” and shoved bright orange cocktails into their hands. “You guys missed the pumpkin carving, but we saved one for you to do, it’s the big one that looks like Eddie’s mom.”

“Beep **_beep_**, Richie!” 

Beverly giggled while Richie waggled his eyebrows, probably already a little tipsy from a couple of cups of the spooky-themed drink. “My husband loves me so much, can you tell?”

Halloween was the one time of year they all made certain they were together at the beach house for. Maybe it was because Halloween was the holiday it was so easy to go back to being a kid during. Maybe because of that element of horror attached to it, the old world legends about death and beings from the other side coming out to play. There was something about All Hallow’s Eve that made the Losers need to be with each other for it.

Even Patty came this year, having long accepted that these six people were important to her husband in ways she couldn’t fully understand but still respected. She had wormed her way into their group, though - at least one of them had found a keeper in the years between It.

They all tackled the giant pumpkin together that they’d saved for the Bees,  _ Thriller _ blaring in the background. They got drunk on the orange sherbet flavored alcohol and ate more candy than they handed out, and eventually got out their sleeping bags and pillows and blankets, all bundled up together in the living room while watching horror movies in the dark. 

It was what they did every year. It was probably a little weird to outsiders. But for them, it was the best. Something strangely warm and comforting and domestic in a way that felt right, that clicked like nothing else had in all those years of missing moments.

Who knew how Stan and Eddie had come back. Who cared. Maybe it was a giant universe birthing turtle saying ‘good job, here’s your reward.’ What mattered was that they were back.

They - all of them - were alive.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Dear reader - I hope you don't mind the inclusion of Patricia! I just didn't have the heart to remove her from the equation, and also thought it'd be nice to have another woman in the mix besides Beverly. :)


End file.
